Hints for Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7 Users

These hints are intended for users of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Release 7.0. As this is a new release, these hints are subject to change as we get more experience! The hints presume that you are using Windows-98SE, Windows-ME, Windows-NT, Windows-2000, or Windows-XP.

For Release 3, 4, and 5 hints, see http://www.pcspeak.com/hints.htm. For Release 6 hints, see http://www.pcspeak.com/r6hints/hints.htm. Our general advice is that for most users, upgrading to Release 7 should be strongly considered. This seems to be the best release in many ways since the 1999 Release 3.5 of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. Releases 4, 5, and 6 each had minor enhancements but Releases 5 and 6 also had more than their fair share of problems. So far, Release 7 appears to have fewer problems than those earlier releases.

Upgrading from Release 5 (or even 4)? See a review of some major differences at http://www.pcspeak.com/r7hints/r7release.htm

Upgrading from Release 6? See a review of differences.

The Release 7 press release, with comments, is available at http://www.pcspeak.com/r7press.htm

Buying/Upgrading a System

The quick advice: If you are buying a new system, we strongly recommend a system faster than 2GHz, with at least 512MB RAM. Going much slower than that won't be economic over the long run, though the software will run OK for some special purposes or for patient people even down to the minimum 500MHz with 256MB RAM. For a desktop, get a SoundBlaster Live! or SoundBlaster Audigy sound card. For a laptop, plan on using a USB adapter ($39) if the on-board sound system does not meet your needs. If being used professionally for heavy dictation, 2GHz/512MB are MINIMUM requirements.

• Memory
• Sound Cards
• Computer Systems

Microphones

• Verification of Microphones/Sound System

Setting Up a System for NaturallySpeaking

Getting Started

(Under Construction 3/21/2002 -- See hints for earlier releases)

Accuracy

• Accuracy Hints, including Little Word Errors, Persistent Errors, Extraneous Word Errors, & Troublesome Words
• Expectations for Accuracy
• How Much Time Can Better Accuracy Save Me?

Making Corrections

• Use the mouse/keyboard!
• Corrections for Recorded Speech

Vocabulary Builder

For most cases, use the hidden vocbldr.exe file in the Programs directory for NaturallySpeaking instead of the "Add Words from Documents" or the automatic vocabulary optimizer. Just execute it. Why?

First, the "Add Words from Documents" does not give you detailed control. Words are your product -- you need to choose them, particularly the "words" that are unusual enough that NaturallySpeaking doesn't know them at all. It presumes that all lower-case words not in the DNS dictionaries are typos so does not add them.

Second, you need to pick what files are representative of your writing. The Vocabulary Optimizer options are fine if My Documents contains primarily documents that are YOUR work product or language similar to what you user, and you don't have substantial documents elsewhere.

Third, vocbldr.exe gives information about new words such as frequency of use. If something shows up as being used only once and you don't know if it is spelled correctly, you can choose not to add it.

Fourth, with vocbldr.exe you can add spoken forms to the acronyms and unusual words as part of the vocabulary-building process.

Fifth, we don't like to change :-) Vocabulary Builder™ was important enough to Dragon Systems to trademark back in 1997. It is still important today. It may take longer to use vocbldr.exe, but you will save time in the long run with better accuracy.

• Converting many documents for processing
• Phrase Lists -- Building and Maintaining
• Special Symbols including "What is a numeric colon?" and "What is a numeric comma?" and "Adding Special Characters."
  
• Changing Characteristics of Symbols, Words, and Phrases

Special Vocabularies & Phrase Lists

• Medical
  • 5, 6, 10 point scales
  • MT Resource
  • Stedman's Spellchecker Plus ($100) is a good product for health care professionals using NaturallySpeaking with either Word or WordPerfect. See http://www.stedmans.com for details and to purchase. It is a spellchecker -- nothing else. It can help you avoid mistakes in your documentation.
• Legal
  • Code Citation Dictation (Updated May 2003)
  • Dictating to Your Computer by Judge Thomas C. Smith, Provincial Court of British Columbia (200KB download, Word format, 25 pages, revised January 2002), posted by permission of Judge Smith.
• Dictating Numbers -- how to handle common problems with numeric dictation on Release 7.

• Maricopa County -- Legal, Medical, and General Words for the metropolitan Phoenix area

• Architecture, Construction, Civil/Mechanical Engineering
• Programming
• Mathematics -- For high school mathematics through post-graduate study, MathTalk with Scientific Notebook handles your needs for mathematical notation. See www.mathtalk.com for details. Some persons use TeX/LaTeX with NaturallySpeaking effectively after using VocEdit to change punctuation properties.

Document Formatting

• Default Font for NaturallySpeaking

Macros/Commands

• Free DNS Macros

Enterprise and Multi-User Issues

• Phrase Lists for Multiple Users
• Topic Export/Import -- understand this if you have many users with similar vocabularies
• Multiple Users Per Microphone -- avoid this if you want excellent results!
• Moving Voice Files, Macros/Commands
• Skipping the "Open" menu for selecting users and/or selecting a specific topic when starting NaturallySpeaking
• Who benefits most?
• Is Fire-Breathing your profession? If you work for a fire department, please call or e-mail and we will explain how a major fire department uses NaturallySpeaking in several departments to reduce transcription costs.

Odds & Ends

• Technical Tips -- a set of general tips on NaturallySpeaking and closely-related topics, generally appropriate for geeks.
• Using NaturallySpeaking with other Speech Recognition Programs
• Backing Up Voice Files
• Keyboard Shortcuts -- Out-loud.com by Susan Fulton has a great set of keyboard shortcuts -- learn these to replace mouse movements! (http://www.out-loud.com/keyboard_shortcuts_for_windows_95.html)
• On-Line Speech Recognition Assistance
• Visually Impaired Usage with JAWS (not yet available for Release 7)
• Audio Feedback for Verification of Commands
• Pitfalls, Warnings, Shortcomings

Naughty Dragon

Known Release 7 Errors: ScanSoft has posted many known errors on its web site. More will be found in coming weeks. This is not necessarily a sign of a poor program, but a sign that there are huge variations in how different people use this program. Programs in wider circulation such as Windows-XP and Word-2002 have thousands of known errors.

Dragon/ScanSoft Knowledgebase -- ScanSoft Knowledgebase.

Closely related, in a different format that I prefer for searching, is our list of their DNS 7 Knowledgebase articles

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS:

1. EDUCATION, Multiple-user PC's: Educational users with more than one user per PC, as allowed under DNS 5 and DNS 6 licenses, must be aware that the current Release 7 license does not allow such usage. Clarification on the license terms has been requested from ScanSoft.

2. CPU Speed, RAM: Release 7 REQUIRES a 500MHz or faster CPU and 128MB (Preferred, Standard) or 256MB (Pro, Medical, Legal) RAM minimum. These are enforced by the installation software.

3. WordPerfect: Release 7 support is limited to WordPerfect 10. That is, some files one would expect for WP9 or WP8 support are not included.

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Updated January 2008